Ida's textile art

dinsdag 12 december 2017

Finally finished

It has been a while I know. First there was that flu virus. I didn't do much then and it took me two weeks to get better and another to get up to speed again. I did manage to finish the jeans blanket for my son right before I really got sick so that was good.

But now I am busy again dying fabric, journaling from time to time and knitting even! I also finally finished a blanket that has been ten years in the making!

It is made of old jeans, a woolen jacket and other leftover fabrics. I added a lot of embroidery too. I am glad that it is finally done and ready to use. Way better than it laying around in a krate or drawer.

Yesterday I played with my new shiva paint sticks and spray paints.

I had lot of fun with that and I really like the result.

A few weeks ago my husband brought home six bags of textile. My mother in law has moved into a nursing home and now her house has to be cleared out. As my mother in law isn't using the textiles anymore I asked if I could have them. But what do you do with a whole bunch of old sheets? Well I decided to dye them so I can quilt with it later. And as I need to dye a whole lot I decided that this is an excellant chance to write down how much dye I use and what the result is so I can perhaps repeat it at a later date rather then just winging it and see what comes of it. Don't get me wrong, that is nice too from time to time but sometimes you want a certain colour and at those time it is nice to be able to look it up.

So that experiment is still going and I will post about it later.

There was also a bag full of yarns of wool and blends and so I decided to do some knitting in the evenings. Nothing fancy though!

You can see that I am keeping myself busy. I see you next time and don't forget to have fun.

maandag 6 november 2017

Upcycling

Hello everyone! It is a beautiful day and the sun is shining bright and I don't know about all of you but a beautiful day does wonders for my mood. I have been cleaning and clearing out and I haven't even hated it LOL.

So here is what I have been up to.

This weekend I gave myself the challenge to make blocks out of all kinds of very small leftover pieces. I had a whole shoebox full of those and I didn't want to throw it in the bin because I think it is wasteful and well I can't throw textile out that I know I can still use. The box had mainly green and blue pieces. Because I wanted to keep the blocks mainly one colour scheme I chose the green pieces to work with first.

I started by piecing two small pieces together and then looked in my shoebox to see what fitted that now new sewn piece. It is really a puzzle. I also didn't want to cut into the pieces more then I really neede to. The task was to use the pieces and have as little waste as possible. (Of course I did need to straighten things up as I went)

I have now made three blocks. You can see the first two in the picture. I have no idea what I am going to do with it but I am sure that time will tell. I still have some green fabric left so I am not done yet and I still have the blue ones to use. Imagine if I have thrown that shoebox out! It is a lot of fabric even if it all cut into small pieces!

I have also finished the jeans blanket. Well almost, because I still need to add the binding. I must say that I have had a bit of trouble with the blanket because it was pretty hard to straighten the whole thing. It must be because I used some stretchy fabric and of course there are no real straight edges that I could use as a guide. But I did manage to get it sort of straight and that is good enough for me.

I decided on zigzag stitches to fuse the top to my fleece back. It still took me a few afternoons to get it done but hey it is done and it is (almost) ready to be used.

Well that is what I have been up to. I hope you all have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by!

woensdag 18 oktober 2017

Some painting

We have had some lovely weather this weekend and so I was outside a lot.

But somehow I did have some time left to experiment with some painting and sew my jeans blanket top.

Has a small child I loved to finger paint. As a fifty year old I now rediscover the joy of playing with paint. I really enjoy it and I plan to do more of it. I am watching a lot of youtube films about painting and painters mostly about abstract painting because it offers a lot of freedom to just do what you want to do. I have already learned a lot techniques and I am slowly getting more courage to just try and see where it ends. For now it is just practice on recycled pieces of paper.

As for the jeans blanket I am now thinking about how to finish it. I will get there. And then I need to straighten the edges, not my favorite part :(

So summer is over and fall has started with a bang. Rain, rain, lots of rain! So this weekend I decided to play with some leftover fabric and wool and yarn and just have some fun. To get into the groove of things again because I haven't done anything textile wise this summer.

One thing I have done though is looking into mixed media and all its possibilities. To mix with textile and to practice and unlock my creative juices. I will keep you posted.